lifeasmission
exploring the mystery of life and mission as one and the same
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Archive of "networking" Category
The GOCN, Ecclesia, and the Missional Church
I was tipped off by a tweet from @bobhyatt that Tony Jones had a post up on his blog titled, “Which Missional Church?” which intrigued me.
He suggests that there are,
…two movements of people within American Protestantism who claim the term ‘missional.’
Specifically, he mentions The Gospel and Our Culture Network and the Ecclesia Network, two organizations that I have meaningful relational connections to and interest in.
Tony describes the GOCN like this:
These thought-leaders come from a mainline context, but they have evangelical leanings. They feel that the church has lost its missional impulse as the mainline church has been ultimately absorbed by American culture. And they found a theological patron saint in Lesslie Newbigin, a twentieth century missionary to India who retired to his native England to find that Christianity was no longer a prophetic force. Newbigin’s books, and those of missiologist David Bosch have guided thinking of this group. Newbigin and Bosch, as well as the books and newsletters of the GOCN, were all highly influential on the genesis of the emerging church movement and of Emergent Village in particular.
And Ecclesia like this:
These are primarily evangelicals with moderate to liberal leanings. They agree with the ECM’s critique of evangelicalism: that the evangelical church in America has been corrupted by culture, is too consumeristic, and has lost the radical, prophetic nature of the gospel. They are most influenced by the anabaptist theologies of John Howard Yoder and Stanley Hauerwas.
While their are certainly theologians sympathetic to them, this missional movement is largely populated by pastors, church planters, and consultants: David Fitch, Alan Hirsch, Bob Hyatt, and Ed Stetzer among them. The organization most closely aligned with this missional is the Ecclesia Network, begun in the mid-2000s.
There’s already some good discussion happening over on Tony’s blog and I don’t want to take away from it so please head over there and join in if you are so inclined, but I also wanted to springboard off of this post in terms of some of my own interests.
In a forthcoming (next?) post, I want to share more about the research project that is taking shape through the DMiss cohort I am a part of. It will become ever clearer then, just how timely and poignant Tony’s post is. For now, I’d like to make some observations about the commonalities of these two expressions of the missional conversation and see what thoughts others might have. Specifically, I see commonalities with regard to a cultural emphasis, a theological vision, and missional implications.
Cultural Emphasis
1) Post-Christendom. Both groups are seeking to engage a culture and context in which the Church no longer exists at the center of society and Christianity is forced to grapple with the advent of religious pluralism.
Theological Vision
2) Missional Theology. Both groups are trafficking in the world of missional theology – a way of knowing God, reading Scripture, and being the Church that is firmly rooted in the missio Dei. I should add here that for this reason among others, I simply do not get how and why some (as Tony does in his post) draw a line between the theology of Barth and Yoder/Hauerwas which seems quite united at this point (see this new article by Stanley Hauerwas, ht: Andy Rowell, and this unpublished PDF by Yoder about Barth’s theology)
Missional Implications
3) Missiology & The Local Church. Both groups are wrestling with the missiological implications of a post-Christendom culture/context and a theological vision rooted in the missio Dei as they intersect at the level of the local church. While the GOCN may have been (may continue to be?) focused on research and writing, if you take a look at their publications, in large measure they emerge from and seek to address life at the congregational level. Ecclesia, likewise, exists as a network of missionally-minded church planters, pastors, and leaders.
Wondering what others people see or have to say here. Next time around, I’ll dig into some aspects of the research I hope to do and how it might contribute to the common aims of these groups and the spheres of influence they represent.
Un-Conference in LA
My partner in (missional church) crime out in LA, JR Woodward, has put together another unconference (remember Verge LA from last year?) where a host of church leaders get to share some thoughts and kick start some conversation, this year, around the topic of discipleship.
Check out JR’s post on the event here and register by way of their Facebook page.
Midwest Missional Learning Commons
My first experience with the missional community in the midwest was through a somewhat random collection of pastors and leaders that met at Life on the Vine over 2 days in January of 2008. That was what has become known as the Missional Learning Commons…
A collaborative day for missional churches to exchange ideas, support, and encouragement on how to incarnate the gospel in their contexts.
We gathered for the 3rd time in January of this year and loved the time so much that we just had to bump the next gathering up to this fall – Friday, Oct. 29 – Saturday, Oct. 30!
(click image for PDF)I’ve said before, there is a lot of power in regional gatherings. So, if you are a pastor or leader who lives in driving distance of Chicago and is at all interested in the learning/participating in the missional conversation in real life, rubber-meets-the-road, kinds of ways, you should definitely join us.
This event has always been free in the past, but in an effort to make sure that we have all kinds of voices at the table, we are charging $10 to help cover the cost of childcare during the event.
Lots more info and banners/posters courtesy of one Mr. Benjamin Sternke can be had over at missionalcommons.org.
Northern Seminary has offered to host the event for us and Ecclesia is helping to sponsor it. Spread the word!
Jason Coker – Support What Matters
My friend Jason Coker and his family have made some significant sacrifices in order to do some much needed Kingdom work. Part of that work, for Jason, is blogging regularly. He does interviews, book reviews, offers insightful theological reflections, and facilitates much needed conversation about some of the most important topics in the world. He does all of this for free!Recently, Jason made the decision to offer memberships to his blog. He still plans to publish all of his content for free, but he is looking to those people who benefit from his work to return the favor in supporting his family with a modest $25 yearly donation.
I’m going to support Jason and I’d invite you to do the same.
Though I hesitate to mention it, the fact of the matter is that he’s trying to sweeten the pot by offering some giveaways. Every member gets a free t-shirt with some original artwork and is entered into a drawing for an iPod Touch, an iPad when 500 members are reached, and a MacBook Pro when 1000 members are reached.
I hope you’ll join me in becoming a member of Jason’s blog as a way to support him, his family and the projects they are a part of.
Rozko Update | Feb., 2010
Amy and I are both networkers through and through. Each of us has enjoyed cultivating networks and communities of friends in the various places we have lived across the US and abroad. These are people who have helped, encouraged, shaped, and loved us. Because we want to do what we can to stay in touch with these people (you?), we’ve decided to compile a 1-page letter about every other month that highlights what’s been going on, what’s coming up, matters in which we hope you will rejoice with us, and others in which we hope you will support us in prayer.
We got our first one out in the last few days. If you didn’t receive it, there are 2 possible reasons.
1) We had no idea you might be interested in receiving it.
2) We tried to send it to you, but must have had the wrong email address.
In either case, if you didn’t receive our letter and would like to, leave a comment or drop us an email via the contact page and we will add you to the list of folks that we email these letters to.
Thanks for continuing to allow us to share our lives with our – nothing means more. We’re also hopeful that this might be a pathway to more of you sharing what is going on in your lives as well.
Click the image below to download our first letter.
Networking & Generosity
My wife, Amy, works for an organization that we both love, International Teams.
Their main aim is,
Bringing People Together to Help the Oppressed.
To this end, they recruit, train, and mobilize people to serve on teams all around the world who are working to address some of the greatest challenges in the world today – things like urban poverty, human trafficking and slavery, and the needs of refugees.
On occasion, I have the opportunity to use some of my skills and abilities to help them out with small projects. In a couple cases, they have asked me to help build websites for various events and communication needs. This is something I enjoy doing, but by no means am I professional. The platform I know best is WordPress, so that is what I am inclined to use. But, WordPress is designed to be a blogging platform, not as a website builder per se.
So, what do you do when you’re doing work for a non-profit, but don’t have much of a budget to work with? You look to network in the hopes of discovering people of generosity.
Two groups have come through big time!
iThemes, who builds premium WordPress themes, was kind enough to donate their Flexx theme to assist in the creation of the sort of sites that I am looking to build.
A couple guys also got together and wrote a book called, “Digging into WordPress.“ It’s a tremendous resource for those who are looking to get to know WordPress from the inside out. They were gracious enough to donate a PDF copy of their book.For a networker like me, who loves to help other people out when he can, it’s a huge encouragement to receive the help of others when it’s needed. If you are in the market for a stellar WordPress theme be sure to visit the people at iThemes. If you want to do some self-instructing in the world of WordPress, this book, “Digging into WordPress,” is a must have.
Thanks to both these groups for being generous with their products.
http://ithemes.com/
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